What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Maryland Journal (June 19, 1776).
“The Presses, the important vehicles of instruction and amusement, must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation.”
During an ongoing shortage of paper, John Dixon and William Hunter, the printers of the Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg, were not the only printers in the Chesapeake who inserted a call for “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” to recycle into paper in their newspaper in June 1776. Frederick Green, the printer of the Maryland Gazette in Annapolis, inserted such a notice in the June 20 edition: “THREE PENCE per pound is given for fine white LINEN RAGS, and one penny per pound for coarse, by the Printer hereof.” On June 19, the printers of both newspapers published in Baltimore ran similar notices. Mary Katharine Goddard, the printer of the Maryland Journal, ran (once again!) an advertisement similar to Green’s notice. Since May 1, she had been informing readers that “THREE PENCE per Pound WILL be given for the best Sort of good, dry, clean LINEN RAGS, and so in Proportion for those of an inferior Quality.” To draw attention, she used “Linen Rags” in a much larger font as a headline for the advertisement.
Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (June 19, 1776).
John Dunlap composed a more elaborate notice for Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette. Beneath a headline that proclaimed, “LINEN RAGS,” in capital letters, he informed readers that the “highest price is given for clean Linen Rags, by JOHN DUNLAP.” He went on to explain to “the Public in general, and the good people of this town in particular” that “the Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags.” As a result, “the Presses, the important vehicles of instruction and amusement” – and news about politics, commerce, and current events as the war continued and the Continental Congress moved closer and closer to declaring independence – “must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation” of sitting idle. “We therefore flatter ourselves,” Dunlap confidently asserted, “that this intimation of the languishing state of so interesting a manufacture will be sufficient to prevail upon all careful Housekeepers to save their RAGS and send them for sale.” In other words, anyone who wanted to continue receiving the news via Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette or any other newspaper needed to do their part in supplying rags for the paper mills. Women in particular, those “careful Housekeepers,” had an important role to play in making it possible for newspapers to disseminate the “FRESHEST ADVICES, both FOREIGN and DOMESTIC,” promised in the masthead of the Maryland Journal and other newspapers.
The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.
The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.
These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.
These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
American Gazette (June 18, 1776).
“THE AMERICAN GAZETTE; OR, THE CONSTITUTIONAL JOURNAL; To be published every TUESDAY.”
Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall moved the Essex Gazette from Salem to Cambridge and renamed it the New-England Chronicle shortly after the battles at Lexington and Concord. At the same time, the Salem Gazette ceased publication. That left Salem without its own newspaper until the publication of the American Gazette: Or, the Constitutional Journal in June 1776. John Rogers signed an address “To the PUBLIC” from the publisher and the colophon stated that the newspaper was “Printed by J. ROGERS, at E[zekiel]. RUSSELL’S Printing-Office.” The final line of the colophon advised readers that the “PRINTING-BUSINESS, in its several branches, [was] still carried on as usual by said Russell.” Russell previously published The Censor, a political newspaper-magazine “supported, during the short period of its existence, by those who were in the interest of the British government.,” from November 1771 to May 1772.[1] Russell had also published the Salem Gazette from July 1775 to April 1775. He was apparently the publisher of the American Gazette, though Rogers printed and managed the newspaper and presented himself as the publisher.
In the address “To the PUBLIC,” Rogers expressed “his Gratitude, in this First Number, to all the good LADIES and GENTLEMEN, who have so cheerfully, and in such Numbers appeared … by their Subscriptions already come to Hand.” Rogers (and Russell) likely distributed subscription proposals for the newspaper in advance of issue “NUMB. 1” appearing on June 18, 1776. “PROPOSALS FOR CONTINUING BY SUBSCRIPTION, THE AMERICAN GAZETTE” appeared immediately below Roger’s address. The proposal was dated June 3, suggesting that they had been printed separately and circulated in Salem and beyond. In addition, an unnumbered “Extraordinary” issue was published in June 12. The only known copy has not been digitized for greater accessibility. Russell had previously distributed an unnumbered prospectus issue when he announced his plans to publish the Salem Gazette in the summer of 1774. The unnumbered “Extraordinary” issue of the American Gazette likely featured the subscription proposal, including instructions for “Gentlemen in Town or Country who are possessed of Proposals” with subscribers’ names added to them “to return them by Saturday next, and give Directions for the Conveyance of their Papers.” Local agents aided Rogers (and Russell) in recruiting subscribers and delivering newspapers. That explains how Rogers could already “good LADIES and GENTLEMEN, who have so cheerfully, and in such Numbers” subscribed before the publication of the first issue of the American Gazette.
Despite the editorial stance that Russell took in The Censor, the American Gazette, according to the subscription proposal, would “contain the freshest and most important INTELLIGENCE” as part of an “Undertaking agreable to every FRIEND to the RIGHTS and LIBERTIES of Mankind in general” at a time that Patriots fought for the “GLORIOUS CAUSE of the AMERICAN COLONIES.” The subscription proposal also outlined the “CONDITIONS,” including the price of the newspaper (“one third than the New-York or Philadelphia Papers”) and day of publication (“every Tuesday, unavoidable Accidents excepted”). The publisher promised that it “will be printed on good Paper and a neat Type, of which this is a Specimen.” The reference to a “Specimen” or sample suggests that Rogers (and Russell) circulated separated proposals on June 3.
American Gazette (June 18, 1776).
One of the “CONDITIONS” stated that “Advertisements will be thankfully received and inserted in a conspicuous Manner, and at a moderate price. The unnumbered “Extraordinary” issue from June 12 and separate subscription proposals already in circulation would help explain how Rogers (and Russell) attracted a handful of advertisements for issue “NUMB. 1” on June 18. That edition contained an advertisement about a mare for sale, another offering a reward for horse that strayed, and one about an auction of several ships. Rogers (and Russell) also heeded the call for the “Printers of the several News-Papers in the colonies” to assist in the effort to “STOP A TORY” by inserting an advertisement about Moses Kirkland escaping from jail in Philadelphia. That issue also included one more advertisement. James Mugford described Jack, a “Negro Boy” who liberated himself by running away from his enslaver in early June. Mugford offered a reward for Jack’s capture and return. Mugford resided in Lexington, the site where the war began just over a year earlier. Even though the subscription proposal stated that the American Gazette would be an “Undertaking agreable to every FRIEND to the RIGHTS and LIBERTIES of Mankind in general,” issue “NUMB. 1” carried an advertisement intended to deprive Jack of his rights and liberties.
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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 153.
The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.
The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.
These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.
These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Boston-Gazette (June 17, 1776).
“It is also well worthy the Perusal of every lover of Civil Liberty and good Government in America.”
In June 1776, Thomas Fleet and John Fleet announced that they published a Boston edition of Richard Price’s Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principle of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America. Like many other advertisements for books and pamphlets, their notice included an overview of the contents to entice prospective customers with a preview of what they would encounter when they purchased and read the work. Section headings included “Of the Nature of Liberty in general,” “Whether the War with America is justified by the Principles of the Constitution,” and “Of the Honor of the Nation as affected by the War with America.”
Yet the Fleets did not leave it at that. They also composed their own address to the public, drawing attention to it with a manicule. “This judicious and exceeding well wrote Pamphlet,” they reported, “was Published in London in March last and has had a very rapid Sale there.” The arguments presented combined with the popularity of the pamphlet, the Fleets explained, “was thought would tend much to open the Eyes of the Nation.” The pamphlet demonstrated that the American cause had supporters on the other side of the Atlantic, though its publication did not have as much impact on policy as the Fleets suggested that it deserved. Despite that disappointment, the Fleets considered the pamphlet “well worthy the Perusal of every lover of Civil Liberty and good Government in America.” That being the case, the Fleets sold copies of their Boston edition “at the moderate Price of one Shilling and six Pence each” instead of the “two Shillings Sterling” that printers in London charged for copied printed there.
During the years that they published the Boston Evening-Post before the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Fleets did not gain the same reputation for advocating for the American cause as Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, and Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy. The outbreak of the war may have caused them to stake a stronger position, though they may have also aimed to generate revenue in a city that the British had occupied for nearly a year and departed only a few months earlier. They followed their promotion of Price’s pamphlet with a reminder that they stocked “A few of that celebrated Pamphlet called COMMON SENSE,” another work embraced by the Patriots who remained in Boston after British forces and their Loyalist supporters evacuated from the city. The Fleets collaborated with the Edes and Gill in publishing and selling Thomas Paine’s influential political pamphlet. Even though their advertisement did not necessarily reveal their political principles, the Fleets sought to activate the political principles of their prospective customers to sell their Boston edition of Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principle of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America.
The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.
The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.
These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.
These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.
Boston-Gazette (June 17, 1776).
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Connecticut Courant (June 17, 1776).
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Connecticut Courant (June 17, 1776).
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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 17, 1776).
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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 17, 1776).
Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution. Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament. Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.
Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies. Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776. Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.
Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely. As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Projectchronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.
These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 15, 1776).
“A GOOD PRICE GIVEN FOR CLEAN LINEN RAGS, By the Printers of this Gazette.”
John Dixon and William Hunter continued to publish the Virginia Gazette on a smaller sheet than usual two weeks after running a notice that explained the circumstances. The “present Scarcity of Paper” forced them to resort to what they had on hand, the smaller sheets, but they assured readers that despite “the Size of this Gazette” it did contain “all the material Intelligence that came to Hand this Week.” The printers also declared that a “considerable Supply of Paper is daily expected from NEW YORK and PHILADELPHIA.” Once they received it, “our Customers shall be served as formerly.” Those deliveries took longer than anticipated. Dixon and Hunter expanded the June 8, 1776, edition to eight pages printed on the smaller sheet, allowing them to disseminate more news and advertisements. They did so again with the June 15 edition. The new format meant that that could not include the usual masthead at the top of the first page, but that may have been the least of Dixon and Hunter’s concerns.
The printers aimed to do their part to increase the production of paper in the colonies amid the disruption in trade with England due to the war. That meant collecting linen rags that could be transformed into paper. They concluded the June 15 edition with a short advertisement, just three lines, that proclaimed, “A GOOD PRICE GIVEN FOR CLEAN LINEN RAGS, By the Printers of this Gazette.” A border comprised of printing ornaments enclosed that notice, distinguishing it from all the other advertisements in that issue. Dixon and Hunter used printing ornaments sparingly. Plain lines separated most news items and paid notices, though a delicate line of decorative type indicated where news ended and advertisements began on the fifth page of that issue. Even bolder lines of decorative type appeared above and below the poem in the upper left corner on the final page (a weekly feature in many colonial newspapers), setting the poet’s corner apart from the advertisements. Dixon and Hunter also enclosed an initial capital for the first news item on the first page within decorative type. Beyond these few examples, they did not use printing ornaments in that issue of the Virginia Gazette. That made the border enclosing their call for “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” even more remarkable. Even if readers quickly passed over other advertisements, the printers wanted to increase the chances that they took note of that final notice.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Providence Gazette (June 15, 1776).
“Palmer and Allen … are determined to dispose of many articles at prime cost.”
In the summer of 1776, Palmer and Allen sold a “Quantity of dry goods” and various spices at “the Shop lately occupied by Mr. Charles Dabney, near the East End of the Great Bridge, … in Providence.” They ran an advertisement in the June 15 edition of the Providence Gazette, announcing that they “Just opened” and made the selection available to consumers. To entice prospective customers, Palmer and Allen provided a lengthy list of dozens of items, including “superfine and middling priced broadcloths, … a quantity of blankets, … Barcelona and other silk handkerchiefs, … buckskin breeches, … silk and worsted knee straps, … mens and womens stockings, … blond and thread laces, … jack and pen knives, … womens white metal thimbles, … brass ink pots, … steel tobacco boxes, [and] a quantity of very beautiful enamelled and cream coloured ware.” Spices and other groceries on hand included pepper, allspice, tamarind, coffee, and “choice cocoa.” With such a lengthy list, Palmer and Allen provided a catalog of their merchandise.
In a nota bene at the end of the advertisement, the partners indicated that they wished to liquidate their inventory as quickly as possible. “Said Palmer and Allen being desirous to sell their goods speedily,” they informed readers, “are determined to dispose of many articles at prime cost, and the remainder for a very small profit.” By “prime cost,” they meant the direct cost to them as shopkeepers. In other words, Palmer and Allen claimed that they did not intend to charge any sort of retail markup for many of their wares, though they did not specify which of them customers could acquire at such a bargain. For the rest, they generated only a “small profit” with a small retail markup. Customers could not go wrong when they shopped at Palmer and Allen’s new store! The savvy entrepreneurs hoped that their pricing would attract consumers, especially those who imagined getting extraordinary deals. For some prospective customers, bargain prices may have transformed “wants” into “needs” as they envisioned themselves getting the better end of the deal when they made purchases from Palmer and Allen.
The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.
The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.
These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.
These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.
